Report provides ‘fundamental guidelines’ for Hong Kong-Macau work

President Xi Jinping’s adherence to upholding and improving the policy of ‘one country, two systems’ has brought forth a “fundamental basis and guideline” report for work on Hong Kong and Macau.

The report also dismisses some concerns in sectors of Hong Kong’s society, according to Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan affairs from Nankai University.

Li was referring to Xi’s report in the weeklong 20th National Congress of the  Communist Party of China (CPC), which opened on Sunday, when he made assurances that his government would exercise overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macau, and that the two regions are administered by patriots.

“Such long-term adherence to the policy has also dispelled some concerns in some sectors of Hong Kong society, including from some political forces with ulterior motives that often hype the so-called deadline of this policy,” Li told Global Times. 

According to him, the policy is considered a “great innovation of socialism with Chinese characteristics, showing that this is the path that we have been exploring since the reform and opening up and that we will keep walking down this path.”

The congress is expected to reappoint CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping as leader, who has reaffirmed a commitment to his policies for the next five years.

In a group discussion on Sunday following the report, Xia Baolong, head of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, said that the president has taken steps and has rolled out a series of measures that “addressed both the symptoms and the root causes, including the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong and electoral reform, to strike down the anti-China forces that disrupted the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.” 

He added that “the measures also put an end to the practice of the city not having ‘national security guards’.”

“Those measures pushed Hong Kong to transition from chaos to order and now toward prosperity, yielding a series of breakthroughs and significant results in Hong Kong and Macau-related work,” Xia said. LV